Chia Seeds are just lovely and full of omega 3 and a bunch of other good stuff. They kind of make me think of tapioca the way they swell up and pop when you bite them so I had a go at making a warm winter pudding a little bit like the Tapioca pudding my Mum used to make me. This is quick as anything and if you dont mind it cold you can just make it ahead of time, set in the fridge and serve with warm milk.

Recipe

2.5 cups of nut milk or non dairy milk of your choice

1/2 cup of Chia seeds

1 Tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla essence

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

Topping: mixed berries, drizzle of maple syrup, chopped nuts and extra nut milk.

Heat your nut milk until warmish but not hot.

Pour over your chia seeds.

Stir in maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and then leave 10 minutes.

The longer you leave it the firmer it is but 10 minutes is enough to still be warm and quite set.

Scatter some berries over it, drizzle a spiral of maple syrup, sprinkle the chopped nuts and then make a moat of warm nut milk around the edge of the bowl. Look at that! Beautiful and very quick… oh and super nutritious.

If I hadnt eaten it while it was warm and fragrant I would have taken a photo for you but it was too delicious to muck around so you will just have to imagine it for yourself… aroma and all.

Ok this is what I’m talking about! Food that you devour with your eyes first.

This is all thanks to the inspiration and practical coaching of Chef Omid Jaffari.

If you get a chance to be in one of his classes- jump at it!

have a look at his blog ShiitakiBlog and be inspired

We know very well how hard it can be to get kids to eat healthy snacks. With that in mind we’ll soon be releasing a book all about healthy kids snacks. From delicious and fun smoothies to healthy snack bars your kids will eat them up without suspecting for a moment that they are doing them good.

I was watching the enormously talented Eddie Izzard in his show Stripped the other night, marveling that this lovely and quite insane man ran 43 marathons in 51 days, when he said in regards to cake mix and I quote “they would put it in an oven and it would come out… LESS GOOD.  It was genius before it went in and it came out… eeeeeh”

He is so right! So in his honor I came up with this lovely raw carrot cake recipe and I think Eddie would agree with me that it is better for never having suffered at the hands of an oven.

It is dense and moist which is all I ever ask of a carrot cake and goes perfectly with a scoop of Pina Colada ice cream and as a bonus uses some of that left over pulp from your juicer.

Carrot Cake

ingredients

2 cups of carrot pulp from your juicer or super finely grated carrot

2 cups fine almond meal

1 cup ground flax seed

1 cup dessicated coconut

1/2 cup agave or honey/maple syrup

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1 TBsp coconut butter warmed to liquid state

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

pinch of salt

Method:

mix everything well in a bowl. Press into a spring form cake tin and put in the fridge for 24 hours. Remove cake tin, ice with cashew frosting and serve with ice cream.

Cashew Frosting

ingredients:

1 1/2 cups soaked and drained cashews

1/2 cup agave nectar

1/2 cup warmed coconut butter/oil

Juice of 1 lemon

zest of 1 lemon

Method:

Place the ingredients in a blender and cream to a fine buttery consistancy using a rubber spatula to move the contents around as necessary.

This will firm up in the fridge.

YUM! Raw Power!

This Raw Recipe was inspired by the delicious autumnal flavors of New York and makes an excellent snack, dessert, or post exercise yumminess.

Spicy Apple cider balls

1 packed cup dehydrated apple chopped into small pieces soaked in 2 Tble sp spiced apple cider or 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup tahini

1/2 cup dried coconut

1/2 cup honey or a little less than 1/2 cup of agave

1/2 cup ground linseed/ground sunflower seed/ground almond

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp orange zest

Stick them all in the food processor and whizz up, stiring every 1 minute or so to get the ingredients evenly distributed. Thicken with more L.S.A if they are too sticky. Roll into balls with your hands and put in the fridge to firm up.

Yes, they are just smartypants tahini balls.

These are loved by my vegan friends, gluten free friends, diary free friends, the kids, the boyfriend and random people that I offer them to at work and at my martial arts class – and of course make great healthy kids snacks. Thank you, thank you…

Actually I’ve been good and  I am well and truly in Christmas mode although I haven’t got the tree up- we always try to do something arty that doesnt involve a dead pine tree and I haven’t quite figured it out yet.

I have been buying and making Christmas gifts though and having a very nice time doing it. One of the gifts that I often give is food, especially homemade chocolate or cookies or even jam as the plums start to ripen on our plum tree beyond our ability to eat them all.  This year I have made many batches of the Bliss Balls, changing the recipe to reflect a more Christmassy feel, and tying them up in little cello bags with ribbons and giving them to friends.

Spending all that time in the kitchen making treats got me thinking, I really do believe there is no reason to put on 2kg over the Christmas/New Year period as apparently most people do.  This is the season to look fabulous not fat and stressed. Plus here in the southern hemisphere we are all about to head off for our summer holidays at the beach and we want to be full of vitality, strong and healthy.

As a hypnotherapist I know that a lot of people battle with their feelings about food at Christmas – they feel they are missing out on treats if they dont have everything on offer. They think  “if I am going to have one then I might as well eat them all” or “eat all of your food, there are children starving in Africa”. You’d be surprised how many adults can’t  “waste” food because they heard that one as a child.

If your feelings about food are beyond “Hungry… need good food- had enough… need to stop” then you might want to gently investigate your relationship to food and how it impacts on your health, body and mind. The end of a year is always an opportune time to take stock of the past year and make plans for the new year.

Perhaps you could start by listing 10 things healthwise that you rocked at this year. Maybe you took up walking or the gym and stuck at it? Or inspired your family by cutting out junk food? Little things count. If you are having trouble thinking of 10 things then you are being too hard on yourself. In a whole year you have made 10 good decisions, I’d put money on it.

Now if you are up to it, 10 things that you didn’t rock at that in retrospect you could learn something POSITIVE from.

The final step is to make goals for the next year and beyond. Generally to write them in positive terms is useful so think about vitality, energy, good health and gorgeousness rather than not fat, not tired, not sick.  FYI Mine involves speaking Spanish and taking up Qi Gong and doing some Salsa.

My only rule: Dont make New Year resolutions- it is just embarrassing when you break them on Jan 3 having made such a song and dance about them. Start now. If you are worth it on Jan 1 you are worth it on Dec 12. If you dont want to ‘miss out’ now then you wont  miraculously want to miss out in the New Year. “Everywhere you go there you are” works for time as well as space.

It’s time to get moving in the right direction. This would be your life, the only one you’ve been given (reincarnation aside)  and it is your right and obligation to fill it with love, happiness and health. Start taking steps now not later. If something isn’t working, change. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got- That’s a no brainer. What are you going to change?

Thats the “what” and “why”. The “how” bit requires you to make the little steps on a daily basis. Find out what you need to do, how to do it and then- Drumroll please… DO IT! how did you not know it was that easy? I dont know

If you are looking for some inspiration friends of mine at BioGlo in Melbourne have been assisting people in making changes by running healthy cooking classes and filming speakers such as Don Tolman so that you can get the skinny on health and what’s going on out there. They have put together a series of DVDs and ebooks to arm you with the information.  Have a look at www.bioglo.tv and checkout their Xmas offer because it might be just what you wanted in your stocking this year. I’m thinking Qi Gong DVD- Hey Santa… I was kidding about that naughty thing.

I made up this raw delicious crunchy topping recipe and sprinkle it on fruit for breakfast.  My children will also tell you I sprinkle it on their cereal and muesli because I think that although what they are eating is what is conventionally thought of as healthy food, it is pretty bereft of nutrients as far as I am concerned. This way we are all happy and I win. Just kidding.

This Raw Recipe is quick and will last ages stored in the fridge

Recipe:

1 cup Hemp Meal

1 cup sesame seeds

1 cup ground flax seeds

2 cups sunflower seeds

1 cup almonds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1 cup goji berries

Process in a food processor until it looks crumbly.

Add 2 cups of dried berries and fruit pieces. I like cranberries and currents but you could use any that you like. This gives the topping its sweetness and makes it yummy.

Store in a sealed container in the fridge and use liberally on your breakfast. Sometimes if I’m in a hurry I just have a bowl of topping with nut milk and don’t bother with the fresh fruit.

This recipe is packed with essential fatty acids, calcium, zinc, protein and goji berry magic and RAW POWER

Enjoy

Beetroot makes a very yummy and spectacular looking raw dip.

It should take about 5 minutes to make this Raw Recipe and is a generous serving which is good because everyone loved it and 4 of us ate it in a flash. You may never buy that horrible prepackaged dip again… I know I wont.

Well one more thing I can tick off the old “stuff to do before I die” list is run the New York City Marathon. Yes folks, I trained, suffered and trained some more and got myself into the 2009 NYC Marathon with 43 000 other nutcases who think a 42.1 km run is a good time.

In all honesty while I was there the running came second fiddle to eating at gorgeous vegan restaurants, all of which had raw options.

New York is awash with great vegan cafes and restaurants and we went to lots of them.

I tried Candle Cafe and Candle 79 and met the lovely Bernay who has run the NYC marathon 8 times. Both of these restaurants had some raw dishes although Candle 79 had the best selection including a “live” entree , main and dessert as well as the usual salad options.  They sweetly wished me luck for the marathon and followed my time on the athlete tracker.

They also had great cocktails like the Lexington which was delicious and the Red Autumn with its beetroot and sake combination that felt like it was almost good for you.

I also tried Pure Food and Wine which although the food was very nice the place was loud and lacked real personality. It was good food for people who didn’t usually eat raw- “wow, you would never know it’s raw!”

The people at the next table were horrible, drunk and loud and the seating arrangements meant they were impossible to ignore. When part of their dessert came flying our way they half heartedly appolgised but it was pretty hard to enjoy ourselves until they left.

We were looking forward to  trying the Dr cow nut cheese although the portion you get is a tiny sliver and there is no way of knowing which cheese is which once you get your plate of it. We decided we would have to go to Williamsburg and buy the cheese straight from Dr Cow.

They did have a great Thai coconut noodle dish and a lovely dessert selection.  Although we had the opportunity to go back we decided that it was a bit mainstream and we enjoyed the smaller, more personal service of some of the other cafes.

In complete contrast was Rockin Raw in Williamsburg.  Creole raw food in huge homely helpings with recognisable ingredients, fantastic flavours and an obviously local fan base. We had massive sandwiches made with essene bread, super food smoothies, and yummy little biscuits desserts.  They had some great sauces on the side and there was a spiciness that had been missing from my diet thus far.  The food was reasonably priced and left us feeling happy and inspired.  What more could you want from lunch?

Andy’s Pure Food in Rye had some amazing little raw chocolate truffles- I admit it, we had to try them all. Hey I had like 2600 calories to make up from the run. They also had some great basic tasty salads and some really interesting smoothies. They mostly do take out and will also deliver a detox program of food to you for seven days to make things super simple.

Blossom Cafe which is a favorite of many NY vegans has some lovely dishes including raw options and was friendly and pleasant. Nice place to recharge after all that walking around NY so we stuffed ourselve before heading off to see Jude Law playing Hamlet.

We also managed to squeeze into the tiny Quintessence cafe in the East Village where we has some awesome raw food. I had a mexican style pizza and I swear it was one of the yummiest things I ate on my trip. The cafe is really small and cosy and the service is friendly.

I stopped in at Angelica Kitchen for hot apple cider and chai braving their ‘we can’t seat you until your whole party is here’ rule. They seem a bit uptight but the food is nice enough.  Apparently they get insanely busy and are wildly popular with the local vegans and vegetarians.

Last but not least was Caravan Of Dreams which was charming and eclectic with a great selection of vegan and raw vegan food. We had amazing smoothies, salads, raw vegan “meatballs” and desserts. The food was piled high and there was an incredible amount of greens. The salad came with sunflower seed sprouts which I have never had before but now I know what I am going to do with all of last summers left over sunflower seeds.

I left New York inspired and at least a kg heavier than when I arrived-I blame the desserts. It makes me very happy that New Yorkers can so easily access a great range of vegan and raw vegan food that is clearly made with care and attention to detail.

I will definitely be making some new Raw Recipes inspired by the Big Apple- stay tuned

Feel like something sweet?

If I’ve been running a lot or my person trainer has been particularly hard on me then I top up with a little something sweet and sticky. Here’s a Raw Recipe that is pretty easy and totally yummy.

Recipe:

1 cup of almonds preferably soaked and dried

1/2 cup cashews soaked

5 Tbsp Cacao

3 Tbsp Agave/honey or 5 soaked dates

pinch of salt

1 Tbsp orange zest or 1 Tbsp mint leaves finely chopped

3 Tbsp cacao nibs for choc chips

Blend first 5 ingredients in a food processor until they form a dough. You will need to use a spatula a lot to scrape the sides down.

Place in a bowl and mix in the choc chips.

Press into a tray and leave it in the fridge to set or dehydrate for an hour or so.

If you wanted to you could add walnuts at the dough stage either with or without the cacao nibs. And what about a choc cashew frosting?

Very yummy Rawwwwww